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Monday, June 28, 2010

Happy Monday! Today is special because my post about the 1st meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild is up on The Modern Quilt Guild's blog. The Modern Quilt Guild is the umbrella organization that connects and inspires all 65+ local modern quilt guild chapters. Check out their site if you're looking for a local guild. The first modern quilt guild was founded less than a year ago and now it is an international movement. So far, there are over 50 modern quilt guilds in the US, three in Canada (Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary), and several in Europe and Australia. It's been an amazing year for modern quilting and I look forward to seeing what comes next!

We had 45 enthusiastic quilters at the meeting! 45! In the planning stages, I had told Lili and Henry, owners of Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge and hosts of our first meeting, that we would likely have 10-20 people at the meeting. Boy, was I wrong! We quickly used up all of Spool of Thread's chairs and the kind restauranteur next door loaned us a dozen. We still had people sitting on the floor!

The atmosphere was welcoming and inspiring and people seemed to be bubbling over with excitement to meet other young quilters. Some had never made a quilt but wanted to learn, others had been quilting for several years, and a few people had 25 years experience. A quick survey determined that 100% of the attendees would rather buy fabric than watch a World Cup soccer game. We had found our people!

After our intros and a discussion on the definition of modern quilting, we shared our quilts. We had an amazing show and tell session and got to hear the story behind dozens of modern quilts. Tons more photos are posted in our Flickr group.

I want to thank everyone who made this event a success; Lili and Henry from Spool of Thread for hosting us (and moving their industrial sized cutting table so we'd have more room!), Sonja for taking 150 amazing photos to document the evening, Arita for taking minutes, Paul and Lawanda for bringing refreshments, Krista, Louise and Lili for donating door prizes, and my husband, Dean, for talking modern quilting with me on many morning runs! Thanks as well to those who talked up the meeting on their blogs. And, of course, thanks to Alissa Carlton for giving me the kick in the butt to get this guild started!

The next meeting is 7pm, Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at Spool of Thread. I've gotta go find some chairs!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Can you see me jumping up and down with excitement? No? Well, I am! It's because tonight I'm going to the first meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! We've had 20 people confirm that they're coming, with another 11 who might attend, and I'm so excited to meet other local modern quilters! The meeting is being hosted by Lili and Henry at Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge, one of my very favourite places to visit!

Dean helping me pick out fabric at Spool of Thread

I heard about the very first Modern Quilt Guild back in October 2009 and thought, wow, I wish I lived in LA so I could go to a meeting! Then, this January, Alissa Carlton, one of the founders of the LAMQG, suggested that I start an online group in Vancouver to see if there was enough interest for a Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. Well, it's been five months and we now have over 75 people in the group!

Lili and Henry let me give one of their sewing machines a spin at their Grand Opening

Thanks to everyone who has let people know about this meeting through the newspaper, blogs, and word of mouth! A huge thanks to my husband Dean, who has listened to me blather on about quilting non-stop for months. He can now tell the difference between Kona White and Kona Snow!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

On Saturday, I spent a lovely afternoon in North Van at the Lions Gate Quilters' Guild show. After a little cell phone tag and some mistaken identities (apparently Sarah and I look quite similar in our avatars), three members of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild managed to find each other! I enjoyed meeting new quilting friends and viewing the 250 quilts on show with them.

It was exciting to chat about modern quilting and meet new people who were interested in the modern quilt guild I'm starting. I handed out flyers and recruited a few new members who want to come to our first meeting on Thursday the 17th!

This quilt was aptly named, the pieces were incredibly tiny and there were hundreds of them!

My haul from the members' boutique and vendors

Of course, I bought a few things at the show, I had to support the guild and vendors, right? I love my new potholder by Krista Hennebury! I also picked up some Heather Bailey (I'm thinking I'll use it to make a striped binding), Denyse Schmidt and Sandi Henderson fat quarters, a Lecien fat quarter with cute French writing ("bon journée!'), and a skirt pattern. Now I'll have to sign up for the next A-line Skirt class that Spool of Thread offers (their June class is sold out!).

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About Me

I'm a wife, a mom of two, a quilter (I founded the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild), a teacher, an aspiring librarian, a bookworm, a good speller, a perfectionist, a lefty, and an environmentalist. I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada.